VA-11 HALL-A Demo

Being a bartender is almost like being a therapist trying to help people get over their problems, except that you use alcohol instead of prescription medicine and professional advice. Granted, not everyone is a good listener, but people are much more open to dialog once a few drinks have made their way into their bloodstream.

VA-11 HALL-A is a unique visual novel in which you play the role of a bartender trying to keep herself occupied in a bar that’s not very popular. Hence, each customer that comes in is one of your few chances to have a conversation with another human being, so failure is not an option. However, unlike most visual novels out there, this one is pretty interactive, even if you don’t actually get to pick what your character says.

As far as the story is concerned, the main theme is cyberpunk, as well a post-dystopian world in which humans are augmented with nanotechnology implants in order to be stronger, smarter and so on. As with every other futuristic world of this type, people are not exactly happy, and they turn to alcohol in order to get over their fears and frustrations, which is where you come in.

Although you cannot contribute with anything to the dialog, you do have the power to keep it rolling, because it’s entirely possible to mess up and have the customer leave before you find out too much about him or her. In short, happens if you don’t manage to mix the drink properly. The drinks are prepared using the on-screen panel, which allows you to both read the recipes and mix the ingredients.

Depending on the drink, you might need to both age and mix the ingredients for a while. They are also split into categories, such as sweet or classy, but you need to pick up on dialog patterns in order to prepare the perfect drinks. The art style is perfect for both the theme and the general vibe of the game, and so is the soundtrack, which adds yet another layer of comfort on top of it all.

VA-11 HALL-A certainly features the right kind of atmosphere, which is extremely important in a game with not that much interaction. Each conversation feels like you are actually getting to know the other person.